Fire Prevention History

Details

Hits: 670

History of Fire Prevention

The fire prevention program at E M Holt Fire Department was first ran by the volunteer's and part/timers who worked at the department during the day. In 2003 the E M Holt Fire Department hired four full time firefighters to handle all calls 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week Three firefighters work 24 hour shifts, and a supervisor works 8 to 5 Monday - Friday to oversee the calls.

Steve Lineberry was one of the firefighters the department hired, he loved to ride motorcycles, so he meet with his supervisor and asked if he could do a ride to raise money to help buy fire prevention teaching materials for the children at E M Holt Elementary School. The Board of Directors approved the event. The 1 st annual motorcycle ride took place in 2004. The approximately fifty mile ride stated at Southern High School parking lot, about 35 motorcycles attended this event. The ride ended at the fire dept where the riders enjoyed a hot dog lunch. Having the ride allowed us to raise $800:00 dollars. Every year since Capt Lineberry has put together a motorcycle ride to raise money for fire prevention materials. Each year the ride grows in size as more people hear about it.

in 2005 the fire department was able to hire Mark Fuqua as full time chief. Chief Fuqua met with Capt.Steve Lineberry to see if he was interested in being over the fire prevention program at E M Holt Fire Department. Captain Lineberry accepted the offer and got the ball rolling.

Captain Lineberry knew that if he wanted to do a good job teaching children about fire safety, he needed the teaching materials to accomplish this. Captain Lineberry was approved by the board to start selling the blue address signs. With the help of several volunteers Captain Lineberry raised over $5000.00 dollars. Having this money allowed the Fire Prevention Program to buy a en-closed trailer.

in 2008 Capt. Lineberry attended school in Pinehurst, NC where he received his fire and life safety educator level 1 certification.

The Fire Prevention Program has grown in the past 3 years. Sparky the Fire Dog (costume) and Sparky the Fire Dog (talking fire truck) have joined our program. We also have a six section wall that is set up to simulate a child's bedroom at home. We have the children pretend they are at home in their bed asleep, we sound the smoke alarm, they are shown to roll out of bed, crawl low to the door, feel the door with the back of their hand ( we have fake smoke coming under the door), they place a towel under the door to keep the smoke from coming into their room, they are instructed to yell fire (used to alert other family members that may still be sleeping), then they crawl over to the window, and go out the window to their meeting place.

We also teach the children what to do if their clothes catch on fire (Stop, Drop, and Roll). We try to make it as real as possible for the children. In 2008 we had a special guest Clarence The Fire Clown provided laughs as Sparky taught him the proper method of "Get Out! Stay Out!" and "Stop, Drop, and Roll".